An experimental investigation of the influence of agentic and communal Facebook use on grandiose narcissism

•Explored in two experiments the impact of Facebook use on narcissism.•Expected agentic Facebook use to lead to higher narcissism than communal or control.•Experiment 1 revealed a marginal effect of Facebook use on narcissism, whereas Experiment 2 did not.•Research synthesis revealed no reliable effect of Facebook use across experiments.

Does activity on a social networking site (e.g., Facebook) increase grandiose narcissism? It was hypothesized that the type of activity (agentic vs. communal) might make a difference. In the first experiment, 88 males were randomly assigned to one of three computer activity conditions (agentic Facebook activity, communal Facebook activity, control computer activity). In the second experiment a larger and more diverse sample (N = 218) engaged in agentic, communal, or control activities either on a computer or not, in order to assess the impact of medium as well as thinking type. In both experiments, self-reported daily Facebook activity was correlated with narcissism. However, the experimental manipulation of agentic vs. communal Facebook use did not significantly increase state narcissism, as indicated by synthesizing the findings of the two experiments. The findings cast doubt on the notion that social networking site use promotes narcissism, though additional research on the topic is warranted.